Embracing God's Compassion: Beyond Self-Centered Faith

1. "Now, it's important to know that when God calls you to obedience he's never going to change you he's never going to change you he's never going to change you change his mind if he calls you to do something you may say yes or no but if you say no he's never going to let you go any further with him until you go back to square one and say okay do you believe that well that's exactly what Jonah did God brought him back to square one but Jonah still had to obey God because that fish didn't drop him off in Nineveh it dropped him off you know where where he was." [43:25] (36 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "Even though many of us are pretty good people we've surrendered to God's personal will for our lives God has a personal will for your life he has a personal will for my life and if you're a believer well for sure you have surrendered to his will for your life because his will for your life is to be born again amen but he has more will for your life so you surrender to God's personal will for your life but the problem with being a good person and maybe quote a good Christian and I'm not making fun of good Christians because I are one and you are one amen it's okay to be a good Christian the problem with that is we've never surrendered to God's will for humanity and we've surrendered to God's will for us personally but we've never said yes to God when it comes to other people we've never surrendered to his purposes outside of us outside of what we want to do or outside of what our life revolves around and that was Jonah's problem." [46:32] (68 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "When God saw what they had done and how they had done it they had put put a stop to their evil ways he changed his mind circle that God changed his mind can God change his mind does that mean he's not perfect no because that's God's sovereign will or excuse me that's God's moral will anyway we'll talk about that another time but when God saw that what they'd done he put us that they put a stop to their evil ways he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened." [52:40] (31 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "Jonah didn't want to go to Nineveh because he was afraid of what God would do for the people of Nineveh and he was afraid of what God would do for the Ninevites well Carl that doesn't really make sense see Jonah hated these people we know that right they were wicked and violent but Jonah knew God better than we think he knew God in fact he knew God so well he predicted God's response to the Ninevites he knew God was going to forgive him he knew God was going to have compassion on them that's why he didn't want to go he hated him and this is where the story kind of takes a quit a twist and it opens up a little bit and we get to see actually what's inside Jonah's heart and I think if we look closely and if I look closely we may recognize something and maybe it's something that that's in our heart." [54:19] (52 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "If you ever wonder about God's love for you if you ever wonder about getting outside of God's grace and his forgiveness you need to write this down you need to write this second half of verse 2 this is what Jonah said to God I knew that you were merciful and a compassionate God slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love you are eager underline that circle it you are eager to turn back from destroying people wow what a God we have he's eager to forgive us isn't that great he wants to he goes out of his way to forgive us and give us more grace and more grace but instead of being grateful what did Jonah do well he he got angry at God." [54:19] (51 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "If you're a Christ follower say I am if you're a Christ follower you can become and I can become a judgmental person by becoming a really good person okay now hear me out we can become judgmental the closer and closer to Jesus we get if we've never surrendered to the purposes of God we've surrendered to the our the will of God for our us but we've never surrendered to the will of God for other people therefore we forget to find way and to offer and our sincerity in putting ourselves in to that will of God if we're seres we forget to go out of our way to help someone we forget to give somebody some money if they don't have and sometimes we look down on people that aren't as far along as we are with the Lord." [55:58] (51 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "The danger is that if we're so good at being, quote, good Christians and, quote, good people, we become so self-absorbed that our religion, quote, is all about us. And we forget that God wants us to go out into a lost world and reach them for Christ. He could care less of what we think about how good we are. Because he knows how good we are, right? Without him, we're nothing, are we? We can be 100% surrendered to God's will for our life. But if we never surrender to the purposes of God in the world, then we set ourselves up to be apathetic. And judgmental. It's just true. And we also set ourselves up to be an obstacle for what God wants to do in other people's lives." [01:00:19] (54 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "When they see the real Jesus, not the Jesus that's on TV, not the Jesus that's in somebody else's life that's a jerkwad and doesn't live like they're supposed to. But when they see the real, real Jesus in you, they can't help it. They'll fall in love with him. And isn't it true that the reason so many of you, follow Jesus now, it's not because someone sat down and explained him theologically, but it's that someone sat down and took the time to share their life with you, and you took the time for them to share their life with yourself. Well, I just said that twice. But you know what I mean. You took that time. You cared enough to sit down. And that's what wins people over to Christ. It's not theology. It's not theology. It's not studying. It's loving. Amen?" [01:03:00] (63 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "The minute we're content with just being good people, the minute we're content with just enjoying the blessings of God without much concern for the lost and the hurting, and that's easy to do, isn't it? Man, life is good when you're a Christian. Amen? It's great being a Christian. If you believe that, say, I do. Say, it's great to be a Christian. It's great to be a Christian. It's great to have a God who forgives you. It's great to have a God who meets you the moment you wake up every single day and who's sitting beside you when you go to bed at night. It's wonderful being a Christian. But if that's the extent of our Christianity, shame on us. Shame on me. When we're like that, we become an obstacle. We become an obstacle for what God wants to do through us into someone else's life." [01:03:37] (59 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


10. "God asked Jonah a question. Chapter 4, verse 4. It says this. Is it right for you to be angry about this? Jonah, wasn't it just the other day that you were crying out in despair and you needed my grace and my forgiveness? Wasn't it you who I caused to get spit out on the beach? Wasn't it you, Jonah? You wanted the same grace that I'm offering the Ninevites, but yet you are angry? I'm telling you, this guy has issues. And Jonah didn't answer this question evidently. Verse 5. He just went out to the east. He went outside of the city and made a shelter to sit under as he waited to see what would happen to the city. Probably feeling sorry for himself." [01:05:47] (46 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)